Tough Character
by eradicari
Summary: Val need to talk to Crow about something... /anything/. *Pairing is Crow/Val. Crow isn't a character apparently.


Val waited quietly outside Crow's room. Her hands were pressed against the wall and she was listening to her own breaths – perhaps trying to make sure that she didn't breathe too loudly, so as not to alert Crow to her presence before she had come up with an excuse to interrupt whatever it was that he was doing.

Crow was a hard person to read. He didn't have much personality to him – most of the words that he spoke were simply a 'yes', or a 'no', with very little else being given. Val liked that about him. He was… simple. Her life had been filled with complications, and while she'd never admit to being tired of them, she definitely desired simplicity at this point.

She decided to not waste any longer standing here, and turned to face the door, pressing her hand down against the handle as she contemplated not entering one last time – an internal struggle that she'd been battling for most of the time that she'd been stood here. She wouldn't call herself anti-social, but she didn't have an explanation as to why she'd want to spend time around Crow that didn't suggest a weakness in her, and she absolutely detested feeling weak.

She pushed those thoughts away, realising that it didn't really matter in the long run. Crow didn't seem like the sort of person that would care, and especially not the sort of person who would go around telling others about it.

She opened the door to darkness, so she reached over to turn the light on.

It didn't occur to her until the door was already open and the light was already on that she should have knocked first. In truth, she didn't want to know what sort of weird stuff Crow had to hide from the others. Her worries went to waste, however, when light illuminated the room, all she saw was Crow sat at his desk, his pet Gobi, an animal slightly resembling a bat, sat on his shoulder. He didn't turn to her, but she knew him well enough to know that not being immediately acknowledged didn't mean that he wasn't interested in what she had to say.

Not that she had anything to say. She still hadn't thought through what exactly to talk about. She could inquire about his bat-thing, she guessed, but she wasn't really an expert when it came to… pets, so she'd be a little dry for worthwhile questions.

"Hey," she began, trying to break the ice. She expected to be met with silence, at least initially, but she barely had time to breathe in before he responded.

"Hi." His voice was rough and quiet. Gobi turned his head toward Val and tilted it slightly, as if looking over her. She wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but after a moment or two, the bird flew from Crow's shoulder over to a cage that hung from the roof on the other side of the room. Once inside, he sat on the pole in the middle and began to groom himself.

Crow didn't look up from his desk, and upon further inspection it seemed that he was sharpening a knife. That didn't make much sense to her – he didn't use a knife in battle. No answers were given as he suddenly pulled a drawer on the desk open and placed the knife inside it.

He closed the drawer soon after, and then turned to Val in his chair. He seemed to be quietly inquiring as to why she was there, but she couldn't tell for sure. He was paying attention to her, though – more than she'd expected from him.

"Just wondered if you had some time to chat" she said, crossing her arms and leaning back against the door, which she had just closed. She had to say, he looked a lot less cool when outside of his battle getup, not that she'd ever be caught obsessing over something as childish as 'coolness'. She'd actually probably say that he looked pretty attractive – his jawline was pretty nicely moulded, and his facial hair suited him.

"Sure" he replied, moving neither his body nor his gaze, which was firmly planted on Val's face. She could see his eyes. She'd seen them before, but never really taken notice of them. They were a really bright, piercing blue. She'd probably have found this a little scary was she not distracted by just how nice his eyes were.

"Can I sit down?" she asked, uncrossing her arms. Her legs weren't hurting her, but she felt the need to sit down somewhere.

"…sure" he replied again, after a moment of silence. He looked around for a moment, before pointing towards his bed. As she turned her head to look at his resting place, she noted that it was made, but also simple. It looked like there was little more than a wooden frame, a mattress and a bed sheet. It reminded her of how she'd lived both back when she was a soldier, of sorts, and now. It seemed that they lived a similar lifestyle, albeit his was by choice, as opposed to hers being forced upon her.

She moved towards the bed and sat on it, placing her hands against the sheet beside her as she looked at him. "…thanks" she said quietly, looking down at the ground as she thought about what to say next.

For once, he was the first to speak – a quiet voice interrupting the silence. "…what's up?" he asked, and for the first time, she had proof that he was interested. She briefly wondered how it had gotten to this point – where she was actually bothered as to whether someone was interested in her or not. As thankful as she was for the question, she couldn't bring herself to answer it, a sudden barrage of emotions causing her to simply lie her face in her hands as a frown crossed her face.

"You seem stressed" he pointed out, perhaps stating the obvious. God, she was stressed. So, so stressed. The waves of stress would come on so suddenly, giving her no time to prepare. Of course, the reality of the situation was that she was stressed all the time, but she could push it off for a while if she didn't think about it.

"Don't get me started" she replied, perhaps a little too harsh, because he seemed to take it to heart, taken a little bit aback. She was worried at first. Perhaps that had been the first time that he'd gone heart-to-heart with someone else for a while. She shook her head, looking up at him. "…I'm sorry, it's just… you're right, I'm really stressed."

All seemed forgiven, and he leaned forward a bit, laying one elbow on his knee and his chin in one of his hands. "What's on your mind?" he asked, in a tone that left her unsure as to whether he was speaking more than usual or not.

She immediately shook her head, looking up at him again as she slid backwards on the bed a little. "…too much to talk about, even if I could. I'll be alright. I'm used to it." She hoped that she didn't sound too whiny, but she felt justified in her statement.

He pulled a facial expression that seemed to imply that he could relate, which wasn't something she could picture. He was so laid back and lax – how could _he_ be stressed? Any thoughts she was having on the matter immediately had the rug pulled from under them when he spoke again.

"I know the feeling" he replied, looking back to times that were both recent and very far in the past. "You could use stress relief." The tone almost suggested that he was asking a question, but the wording left very little room for discussion. Thinking about her previous life had left her a little vulnerable, though, and she gave in, accepting whatever help he had to offer.

"Stress relief, huh?" she asked. She usually just spent some time in the gym, beating the loving hell out of punching bags. "…I'm not much of an expert when it comes to controlling my own psyche. Anything you can suggest?" she questioned, sighing a little bit.

He went silent for a moment, looking for the right words to use. He hadn't had this conversation many times before. His own stress relief had usually come at the aid of hunting monsters – that had been enough for him. He'd travelled pretty far, though – his ability to sit back, be quiet and simply listen had allowed him to pick up many things.

The silence continued for a few seconds, and Val looked over to him with a slight frown, wondering whether he was perhaps uninterested in answering her question. To her relief, he seemed to be thinking, his hands on his spread knees as he looked at the ground, a look of deep thought on his face.

"…hm" he hummed, after a little while. She looked up at him, a little worried for no reason in particular. "I think I might know something" he replied, moving up from his chair to his feet. As he began to move towards her, she looked over him. It made her a little uncomfortable at first – she'd gotten used to him being sat on his chair, barely moving – and now there was so much movement in him. The walk didn't last very long, he sat down at his destination - beside her.

This particular idea had been passed on to him while he was drinking in a tavern, speaking to a man who'd also been hunting some of the many monsters on Shear. A woman had approached the man and offered to relieve him of stress – she'd worn very little. As they'd left, moving upstairs into one of the many bedrooms, Crow had continued drinking. He didn't hear much from upstairs, but his basic knowledge of human societal norms filled in the blanks. Money had been exchanged at some point.

Val looked over at him almost instantly, question on her face as her lips parted slightly – she was about to speak as his hand made its way to her inner thigh. She knew what he was suggesting, but she wasn't sure what to think. Her lips remained parted as she attempted to put enough words together to form a response. She didn't have enough time to form her rebuttal before his lips found their way to hers.

Something exploded in her. She'd been kissed before, of course, but it had been so long since she'd been this close with anybody. It felt almost nostalgic, and her eyes immediately closed, her hands moving up to hold his face, half worried that perhaps he'd move away before she had a chance to completely explore how this felt.

His lips felt amazing against her own. She could feel every muscle moving, her heart thumping audibly in her ears as she held their lips together. She really didn't want this to end, and at present, she wasn't really sure what 'this' was.

She was so distracted with what she thought was the best that this could possibly get for her, that she didn't notice his hand move in between her parted legs. A light gasp left her mouth as his fingers moved over the centre – a feeling that she definitely wasn't used to.

Sexual pleasure had been strictly regulated in every aspect of her life – regulated to very little. Growing up, she hadn't been very exposed to that sort of thing. Once she was old enough to know and understand what it was, she simply wasn't interested in it. When she finally awoke sexually, she couldn't find herself trusting anybody enough to let them see her in that way.

A life of distancing herself from any possible romantic partners had left her inexperienced, so she didn't know what to do – what to say to his advances. Despite her initial intensity, she was the one to pull back from the kiss. She didn't try to stop him, simply leaning back a bit with her mouth agape and another light gasp leaving her. She opened her eyes long enough to look at his face – she saw absolute concentration, and she was suddenly aware that his fingers were moving over her clothed crotch in a very obviously planned motion. He was definitely experienced with this, but she simply couldn't see him being this close with everyone, which seemed silly, given what he was currently doing.

Content in his belief that if she didn't want this, she'd say something, Crow reached up and began to unzip her clothing – she was wearing a simple jumpsuit – it was easy for him to remove. They had to move around a little for him to fully remove the article of clothing, but he eventually got it done, dropping it onto the ground in front of them, leaving her in nothing but black underwear.

Val could still find no words to say – she didn't really _want_ to say anything. He clearly knew what he was doing, and she couldn't really add anything to this. Vocalising her appreciation seemed almost childish to her, but she knew that she'd likely be reduced to that later.

Crow's hands moved up, running over her breasts, grasping the two black cups that laid over them. After looking briefly up at her blushing face, he reached behind her and fished around for the way to open them. It took him a while, and this served to prove to her that perhaps he wasn't as experienced as he seemed. He didn't get frustrated – merely a little rougher in his actions. He finally managed to tug the two sides apart, pulling back a little to give himself space to fully remove the piece of underwear.

She hoped that he'd spend a little bit of time focusing on her chest before moving down to her crotch. Her prayers seemed answered as he placed a hand against one of the sizable tits, her nipple hardening and pressing against his palm. The feeling intrigued him, and he pulled his hand back, before dropping two fingers onto the hardened nipple and lightly pinching it. This brought the first moan from her, and the way that his fingers lightly tweaked the nub brought a quieter, second one.

He seemed content – she could swear that a light smirk crossed his features, but even she didn't really believe that. He shuffled back a little more to allow himself to lean down, taking the until-now ignored nipple of the other breast between his lips, his eyes closing as he began to suckle lightly. Her hands moved up into his hair, lightly kneading themselves into the short and yet unruly mess. A moan left her again, almost against her will.

As he pulled back, she found herself a little disappointed, and yet excited to know what it was that he wanted to follow that up with. To his dismay, he pulled away, but when she saw what he was doing, her excitement returned. He began to strip himself of clothing. First, he removed his shirt, revealing his surprisingly toned body. Should she have been surprised? Perhaps not, but she had been.

Next, went his pants, leaving him in only his underwear. The aforementioned boxer shorts also found their way to the ground surprisingly quickly, leaving him with absolutely nothing hidden. He wasn't very hairy, again, to her surprise. She found herself biting her lip a little at the sight of his naked body, her eyes wandering downward to the space between his legs. Her heart jumped a little as she saw his cock – it hardened seemingly specifically for her amusement, the head being hidden by foreskin.

Suddenly, whatever plans he had went out of the window – she had to get her hands on him. She looked up at his face for a moment, before giving a light smirk and leaning forward. Her hand found its way to his dick, running lightly over the length of the sizable member. She guessed that it was pretty big, but given her lack of experience, she guessed that _any_ size would look big to her. He seemed happy enough for her to do that - he didn't protest, at least. She wondered if maybe he'd prefer something else…

She leaned a little further forward and put what little knowledge she had about sexual encounters to use. Her lips very near planted themselves on the head of his cock, her heart still thumping with the new feeling of arousal as well as the still nostalgic feeling of excitement. His breathing betrayed him, the rate increasing slightly. He had to breathe out in order to avoid moaning as she ran her tongue around the tip, his hand moving up to her shoulder.

"…can we skip this?" he asked, bluntly and straight to the point. She looked up at him for a moment, and then gave a small nod. She didn't understand why he wanted to, but she was sure there was a good enough reason. Hell, it almost sounded like something she'd say.

She moved up and off the bed aside him, fishing her fingers into either side of her panties, before pulling them down and off her. As she stepped out of them, his hands found their way to her waist. She turned towards him and stepped closer, pressing a hand against his chest as she looked up at him. Something had been tugging at her for a while, and only now did she find the words to voice it.

"…you're doing this because you want to, right?" she asked, looking up at him again. Maybe she actually wanted to know, or maybe she was just looking for confirmation that she could go ahead with this without feeling bad. Either way, he gave a tiny nod, and then a bigger one.

"…uhh, I do not…" he began, and the nod suddenly confused her. Was he saying no? "I would not do this if I did not want to" he continued, running a hand lightly over her side, taking in the feeling of her bare skin. He'd started this with the simple intention of maybe helping her out, but he couldn't deny that he felt an attraction to her that he hadn't felt many times before.

She was suddenly reminded of their plans as a slight movement on his part had his cock pressing against her thigh – a blush immediately moved over her face. His face was one of question, though – was she content with his answer? Did she want to continue? All questions he had were answered as she leaned up and kissed him, slow and steady.

Slow steps were made to lead the two of them back against the wall, her back pressing against the metal, which was surprisingly warm. The kiss was held for a while, her hands moving up to guide his down to her butt. Unsure as to why she was telling him to touch her here, he held onto her, hoping she'd show him.

After not too long, she did. She lifted herself off the ground a little, hooking her legs around his waist. Having so much weight thrusted onto him without much warning made holding her up a little bit of a challenge, but he managed, keeping her up in the air as his crotch pressed against hers, a shot of pleasure running through the both of them. He was the one to pull back from the kiss, his eyes looking over her as he moved one of his hands towards his cock, grasping it for a moment before looking down to make sure he didn't mess this part up.

Val's heart was beating quickly. She'd never done this before. She'd never really wanted to. Now that she was presented with the opportunity, twenty plus years of pent up sexual desire began to pulse inside her, leaving her visibly twitching once every few seconds. Crow didn't notice, though – his eyes were firmly planted on her slit, trying to figure out through the darkness whether she was ready to do this or not. As he ran the head of his cock along the length of her warmth, she let out a needy gasp.

"Easy" she hissed, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the wall. His eyebrow raised. At first, he was a little unsure as to why she'd had that reaction. He looked over her face for a moment, before giving a knowing nod.

"…is this your first time?" he asked, quietly, in a tone that showed no judgement – not that it made a difference to her. She wished she could say no. She wished that she could lie and tell him that she'd done this before so that maybe she wouldn't feel so _weak_. Of course, deep down, she knew that there was no shame in her situation, but having to admit that someone needed to take extra care with her wasn't something she could do easily.

All she could do was give a small nod, and that was enough for Crow. She couldn't look at him, but he didn't mind. His lips found their way to the nape of her neck, and he began to suckle lightly on the tender skin in a comforting fashion. She seemed to appreciate the attention, her hands moving up to wove themselves in his hair once more.

Crow knew that by delaying his entrance, he was just avoiding the inevitable. He was going to have to push in at some point and given how much Val was hyping this up for herself, it was going to hurt somewhat for her. All he could really do was try to get it over and done with – at least that's how it seemed from his perspective. Val wanted to get it over with just as much as he did. She still felt vulnerable, and maybe when they were actually in the act, she wouldn't.

Any irrelevant thoughts from the both of them were immediately wiped from their minds as Crow finally pushed inside – at first he could only manage to push the head in, but even that was an accomplishment as far as the two of them were concerned. Val was already breathing pretty erratically, and Crow still had his head in the nape of her neck, now placing gentle kisses along her jaw as opposed to the suckling he'd been doing earlier.

Her hands moved themselves to hang on his shoulders – she had worried that perhaps she'd feel unsafe in his grip, but this wasn't the case. She knew that he'd continue to hold her here for as long as she wanted him to – or as long as they could, anyway. It wasn't until they'd been motionless for a few moments that she realised that he was probably waiting for her permission to continue. She took a deep breath before giving a nod, silently telling him to continue.

He got the message, his hands gripping at her rear a little tighter as he pushed himself inside a little more. The next inch or so went in easy, and he got a little cocky, foolishly thinking that the rest of this would be easy sailing. He pushed a little harder than he should have done, and a half-moan, half-cry came from Val. He immediately stopped and looked up at her, remaining still as he waited for her to respond.

Her hymen was torn, but she felt underwhelmed. She'd expected it to hurt much more than it had. It had been merely the suddenness of the pain that had been brought upon her that had caused her to cry out. She let out a shaky breath before looking down at Crow. Her hands moved up to grip his jaw, and she lifted his head, leaning down to press her lips against his. He took the kiss as permission to continue.

His hips moved a little closer to hers, the space between them closing slowly. Inch by inch, he continued slipping inside. The feeling was unusual to her, but it didn't really hurt, not after the initial thrust. Before either of them knew it, their crotches bumped into each other. Val had to pull back from their kiss to look down – she couldn't believe it had been that easy. She'd worried about this so much and yet it had been easier than… it'd been one of the easiest things she'd ever had to do. Why had nobody told her?

She found herself getting distracted by these thoughts, and shook them out of her head, returning her focus to the man inside her. A low moan slipped from her lips, holding his name. She could feel his member twitching slightly inside her. She didn't know to make the assumption that this was a sign that he was approaching orgasm, but that was irrelevant – he was just really excited. He found himself more invested in this than he'd been in anything, for a long while.

He started moving. Her hands found his back and her legs wrapped themselves tighter around his waist, one ankle hooking around the other to keep her in place. He let out his first actual moan of the night, throaty and deep – music to Val's ears. As their hips began to come into regular contact with each other, Val began to move against him, desperate to feel him all the way inside her again.

This went on for a few minutes, Crow occasionally letting out a light moan or groan, while Val was near-constantly spewing out a string of praises, telling Crow how big he was and how much she enjoyed this, not that the former carried much weight. After a little while, Val began to feel the familiar feeling of an orgasm creeping up on her, but it was so much different this time. She could tell that it was going to be intense – perhaps the best that she'd ever had.

Her bumps against him became more and more erratic, her moans following the same pattern. It was no longer coherent phrases or his name leaving her lips, but loud groans and _Oh God_ s. An occasional _Oh fuck_ making its way into the air space. They were perhaps being a little too loud, but Crow wasn't the type to care, and Val was too far gone to worry.

Her orgasm came in one large pulse at first, sending shockwaves through her body and mind. The feeling was all too familiar and yet at the same time brand new. She couldn't control her body as her legs twitched hard and her hands gripped tightly at the back of his head. The words that left her weren't intelligible, but to be honest, she wasn't really sure what she was trying to say, far too distracted by the now winding down orgasm.

Crow continued his movements, their hips smacking against each other in rhythm once more. Suddenly, Val pressed a hand against his chest, panting quietly as she looked up at him. "…lie down" she spoke, quietly, looking briefly over at the bed.

He did as she asked, helping her down to the ground. She could barely stand, but she'd expected that. Her movements were very weak at first. She finally opened her eyes. She had trouble seeing at first, her vision shaky and blurred. When everything returned to normal, she saw Crow laid on the bed waiting for her – the sight brought a slight smile to her lips, which soon turned into a grin.

She approached the bed, still having a little trouble walking, and then crawled onto it. She moved over him, placing her knees at either side of his waist – reaching down to grasp him, she lined him up with her entrance again, placing her free hand in front of her so that she wouldn't fall over. It took her a few moments to build up the courage to move forward, but the moment their genitalia touched, she was reminded of the orgasm that she'd had, and immediately slipped him inside.

It was much easier this time. She was unmistakably wet – her vaginal canal now feeling snug and warm around Crow's cock as opposed to the almost unpleasant tightness of their first penetration. He felt himself slip deeper into her – bit by bit, the still tight, yet pleasantly so, tunnel slipped further down his length. He'd never understood sexual attraction before – at least not the length which those around him did, but just as he had shown her a whole new world, she was doing the same to him. Her body was curvy, and pleasant on the eyes, especially so now that he could actually see it in action. He had to resist the urge to run his hands along it, but he knew that his efforts were in vain, as he would no doubt have them all over her voluptuous frame sooner or later.

As she hit his base, she let out a low moan. She had a mission now – she had to get him off. She wasn't sure what to expect when he finally hit his orgasm, but she wanted him to feel exactly the way that he'd made her feel. Her hands moved up to his chest, her eyes closing and her hair falling over her eyes as she attempted to bounce on him – it was hard at first, but she soon got the hang of it, his cock being enveloped in her tight warmth over and over.

Crow was very clearly enjoying himself – his suspicious having been correct, as his hands were now running over her. First, his hands ventured to her breasts, cupping them for a moment. They were pretty big – big enough for him. Not that he had _standards_ or anything. His cock was twitching again. This time, it _was_ because he was about to cum, but he wasn't sure how to vocalise that.

Val continued bouncing away – she enjoyed this position a lot more. She had so much more control. She was allowed to go at whatever pace she wanted. It would make achieving her own orgasm a lot easier. The fact that she could control what happened when made this experience all the more enjoyable for her – she really enjoyed being in control in the other aspects of her life, so it made sense that her sexual desires followed the same road.

She'd been distracted by her own thoughts for far too long, and her second orgasm managed to creep up on her. Her hips bucked and her head flicked back as a long moan left her lips, her throbbing pussy convulsing hard against Crow's dick. This was enough to tip him over the edge, too, his cock twitching one last time before stiffening up harder than before – the tip pulsing slightly inside her as a spurt of cum shot from it, slowly filling her.

The orgasm had led them both to hold each other tightly, Val now leaned against him, clinging for dear life – Crow held just as tightly onto her, his own hips bucking slightly as he rode out his orgasm.

The room that had been before filled with loud moans and praises was now near-silent, the only sound being light panting coming from the two lovers. Val had pulled herself away from Crow a bit, her body lying on its own part of the bed as her head laid on one half of his chest, her finger running in slow circles around the other half – an action that felt natural to her. Crow didn't know what to think, but he found himself in that position a lot, so it didn't bother him.

Val let out a sigh, pressing a light kiss to his jawline. She began to feel his release dribble from her, running down her thigh and onto the bed below – she realised something, and suddenly, her eyes widened and she gasped. "…fuck! Christ, all that build up and I forgot the condom!" she cried, looking down at Crow – she didn't really expect him to say anything. She was so angry at herself for forgetting.

Crow shook his head a little and leaned up to press a kiss against her lips, before returning his head to the pillow. "Don't worry" he began, going silent for a moment. To her, it almost seemed like that was all that he was going to say – that she just simply _shouldn't worry_ and then everything would be okay, but he spoke again a few moments later.

"Can't have kids" he replied, shrugging a little. What had initially been anger at herself was now replaced with sadness in Val. She didn't want to have kids, ever – that was something she'd probably never change her mind about, but hearing that someone didn't even have a choice in the matter made her a little sad. His thumb running over her jaw, paired with the slight smile on his face told her that she shouldn't worry about it. She gave a light sigh and returned her head to his chest, closing her eyes.

They simply laid there for what must have been at least half an hour, Crow's fingers twirling themselves in Val's hair in a manner that he thought was comforting, while Val remained on the edge of falling asleep, not quite tired enough to topple over.

The silence was broken by Crow, who simply let out an "Oh." Val looked up at him in question and saw him reaching over to his wallet, pulling out some money. Val raised her eyebrow as he held the money out to her. Her initial reaction was to be offended. It was like _that_ was it? When he noticed her reaction, he double backed, his other hand reaching back to scratch his neck. "…uh, is that not what you're supposed to do…?" he asked, and suddenly it made sense to her. She sighed slightly and shifted up a little, pressing her lips against his for a small kiss. She couldn't help but laugh a little, perhaps in a more condescending tone than she should have. She reached down and grabbed the money, before slipping it back into his wallet and putting the wallet onto the bedside table.

"No" she replied, simply, with a small giggle following, before leaning down to kiss him again. "Not if there's feelings involved." A statement that wasn't entirely true, but she couldn't think of another way to get her point across to him – she wanted to do this again. She'd had fun. She liked him.

"…are there feelings involved?" he asked, the tone challenging her just as much as the wording did. She didn't let up, though, pressing a small kiss to his nose.

"Definitely."


End file.
